this, after days of fierce fighting between israel and gaza militants. an attempt at a brief cease fire was unsuccessful this morning as palestinians unleashed a fresh round of air a being at thats. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is not backing down. >> the past 24 hours israel has made it clear that it will not tolerate rocket and missile attacks on its civilians. >> nbc's martin fletcher is live for us in tel aviv. martin, what's the latest? >> reporter: lynn, good morning. following up on netanyahu's threat. last night 16,000 israeli reserve soldiers were called up. they've called up half of that number of 30,000. they're moving south of where the army is moving south of the border. they're moving down tanks, armored personnel carriers. among those reserve soldiers called up also included officers and soldiers who are experienced specialty is dealing with enemy civilian population. yet another hint that an israeli ground invasion is very much on the curb. it's not been ordered. there was a cease fire briefly in gaza this morning because the